The Town of Okotoks has repealed a youth curfew bylaw it implemented nearly 30 years ago after an internal review found it had not been used in the last eight years.

Town council voted unanimously to repeal the bylaw on Monday. 

“It’s demonstrated limited effectiveness in addressing youth-related concerns,” said Okotoks municipal enforcement manager Vik Kulkarni. 

“It is currently presenting enforcement challenges and unnecessarily restricting lawful activity by youth,” he added.

Under the old bylaw, youth 15 and under could not be in a public place between midnight and 5 a.m. without proper guardianship or a “legitimate excuse,” such as travelling to and from work or activities. Violations resulted in a $100 fine.

An operational review of the bylaw, Kulkarni said, found it overlapped with existing legislation, such as the federal Youth Criminal Justice Act and provincial Petty Trespass Act, making the law redundant. The town’s Community Standards Bylaw also regulates noise and nuisance complaints.

An audit of the town’s records showed there had been no enforcement action related to the bylaw since 2018.

“The fact that we have no records after eight years I think proves the fact that it’s time to repeal this,” Coun. Stefan Dykema said in Monday’s meeting.

Amanda Brown, who has lived in Okotoks for 16 years, told CBC News she is comfortable with the decision, and for the most part teens in the town are responsible.

“You do it one way and if it’s OK and things are working out, you give the kids a chance to do the right thing and make the right choices,” she said. “If it turns out to have been a mistake, I’m sure council will rectify.”

Another Okotoks resident, Alex Bone, said he supports removing the bylaw, but understands why some people might want to keep it.

“I do think that having the curfew sort of made sense as a way to make sure teens got home and were safe with their families,” he said. “But if those kids want those nighttime walks, I think this community is safe enough for them to go around and take that nighttime walk.”

Not the only Alberta town with youth curfew

In Okotoks, the bylaw was part of a wave of efforts to crack down on youth crime, particularly vandalism, across the country in the 1990s.

Several municipalities in Canada either passed or looked at implementing a youth curfew, according to a May 1998 article from The Canadian Press. It reported that at the time, Okotoks was one of at least 10 prairie towns to have either recently passed a bylaw or considered reviving an old one.

According to an article on the Alberta Municipalities website, the towns of Bruderheim, Taber, Millet, Blackfalds and Valleyview still have youth curfew bylaws similar to the one Okotoks repealed.

The City of Lethbridge told CBC News in a statement it’s had a youth curfew bylaw for those 14 and under in place since 1947, but it is not enforced.

The Okotoks curfew narrowly passed with a vote of 4-3 on April 20, 1998. According to the original legislation, the curfew was meant to “assist parents and legal guardians in exercising authority over their children to keep their children safe from harm,” and protect public and private property.

It was met with a mix of support and criticism. 

According to a Calgary Herald article published on April 21, 1998, those in favour of the bylaw felt it provided clearer guidelines for administering police services and keeping kids out of trouble.

But opponents — such as then-town councillor Laurie Hodson — called the bylaw “‘unconstitutional'” and expensive to enforce. 

Young people in town were equally outraged, the Herald reported at the time.

Then-Okotoks mayor Dave Jones, who was the deciding vote for the bylaw, warned councillors the town had “received legal opinions that a court challenge to the constitutionality of a curfew could cost taxpayers a lot of money,” the Herald reported.

There was no provincial precedent for how enforcement would work, the Herald reported, as other Alberta towns with similar curfews had yet to use it to lay charges.

The recent review listed lack of enforcement as one key reason why the bylaw should be repealed, stating it was “infrequently used” and led to “minimal charges” as most issues could be resolved through warnings or referrals.

Kulkarni added that to this day, youth curfews raise constitutional concerns about whether youth rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms are being violated.

“We are trying to modernize what our community safety approaches are, and that is focused on … prevention, engagement and targeted enforcement of specific behaviours rather than broad restrictions just based solely on age,” he said.